What Does the Bible Say...?

[DredgeAmazing]

Dear fans,
It's time for "What Does the Bible Say?"!
Starting tonight, I'll post a question concerning the Word of God's take on tough subjects in today's society! Everyone is welcome to discuss!

Week One
What does the Bible say about...
slavery?

[TigerShadow]

Matthew 22:39 - "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 7:12 - "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you."

[Mr. Yorp]

Physical or Spiritual?

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

[Pound Foolish]

Aw, such lovely verses. Here's a few more.
"However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. " (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)

" If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever." (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment." (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT, emphasis added)

"Please him"? Please him how? That phrase's potential for unpleasant undertones is uncomfortable.

"When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property." (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

I'm glad this topic has been brought up. Yes yes, this is actually far better treatment of slaves than the alternative for its time, even radically good and blah blah. No matter how people try to slice it, I've always found the OT's position on slavery rather... frown-upon-able.

[Mr. Yorp]

So PF, what do you do to end slavery?

[Pound Foolish]

What do you do? Stopping selling people would be a good start.

[Mr. Yorp]

Again are we speaking of spiritual or physical.

Likely you are supporting slavery just by chatting on here. What I mean by that is the devices you use are made by, slaves. Yes?

[SirWhit]

In a word, no.

[Miss Friendship]

I would agree that many "slaves" make many of the devices we enjoy in American culture, but sometimes I wonder if we would stop buying, those slaves would have nothing, instead of next to nothing?

[SirWhit]

I mean, yes, the working conditions are deplorable, but it is better than not having a job at all.

[Mr. Yorp]

Right.

Who wants to define slave for this discussion?

[SirWhit]

A slave is someone who works for no wages, often against his will.

[Mr. Yorp]

Well what about if he owed a debt and couldn't pay in money, shouldn't he be able to work as a servent to pay it off?

[Miss Friendship]

There is another defintion to slave....as a verb. To work extremely hard with little or no wage. I think that was the kind we were discussing.

[Mr. Yorp]

Define wage, please.

[Miss Friendship]

a fixed regular payment, typically paid on a daily or weekly basis, made by an employer to an employee, especially to a manual or unskilled worker

[Mr. Yorp]

Well what ifI hire someone who just wants paid in food and shelter? Is he considered a slave?

[Eleventh Doctor]

Yes, according to US law and most people that is still considered a slave.

[Pound Foolish]

Well, so far as I know, there's none of that involved in making your typical computer nowadays unless you know of reliable sources that say otherwise.

Tennyrate, I'm not so concerned with modern slavery for the purposes of this discussion (slavery involving conditions somewhat better than the average life back then, while still tragic today.) What's interesting in Biblical context is God prescribed slavery rather than rebutting it and laid out barbaric rules involving it and went so far as to say slaves are property.

[Blitz]

Those rule were hardly barbaric if you consider how other countries treated their slaves.